Ever since ESPN.com’s John Clayton presented these salary cap numbers, a lot of Houston Texans fans have begun making their salary cap casualty list. As for myself? I’m waiting until a new Collective Bargaining Agreement is reached and official numbers come out. According to Chron.com’s Lance Zierlein, that may not be the worst approach.
Citing sources, and he is well-connected, Zierlein states that they may be no penalty for being over the salary cap this year or even in some upcoming years. That doesn’t change the fact that there will be an enforced minimum, but there’s no maximum and it makes sense.
As the blog states, why would any player agree to a deal that would take money away from veterans? Better yet, why would the negotiating owners, your big-spending Joneses and Krafts, agree to such a low cap that is potentially hindering to their franchises and assets? Lance suggests possible other motives, but I'll keep my focus on this $120ish million cap.
When you get out of the hoopla of NFL Lockout coverage and the extreme urge to move to real football analysis, those questions make sense. It also makes sense that the NFL would ease its franchises back to a hard cap rather than make everyone get into the new system in a matter of days.
Long story short, people should probably hold off on cutting Steve Slaton and Amobi Okoye for salary purposes until the dust settles. Those three days of teams being able to negotiate with their own players will be very interesting indeed to see if we have the massive cap causalities we're expecting now or the few and far between ones that Zierlein proposes.
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